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The name "VxD" is an abbreviation for "virtual xxx driver", where "xxx" is some class of hardware device. It derives from the fact that most drivers had filenames of the form vxxxd.386 in Windows 3.x. Some examples are: vjoyd.386 (joystick), vmm.386 (memory manager). VxDs usually have the filename extension.386 under Windows 3.x and .vxd under Windows 95. VxDs written for Windows 3.x can be used under Windows 95 but not vice versa.

Prior to the advent of Windows, DOS applications would either communicate directly with the various pieces of hardware (responding to interrupts, reading and writing device memory etc.) or go through a DOS device driver. As DOS was not multitasking, each application would have exclusive and complete control over the hardware while running. Though Windows applications don't often communicate directly with hardware, it was the only way for Windows drivers; and still is in the real and standard modes of Windows 3.x.

Windows/386 and onward allowed multiple DOS applications to execute concurrently by executing each within its own virtual machine. To share physical resources among these virtual machines, Microsoft introduced virtual device drivers. These drivers solved issues relating to conflicting usage of physical resources by intercepting calls to the hardware. Instead of a machine port representing an actual device, it would represent a "virtual" device, which could be managed by the operating system.

Although Windows 98 introduced the Windows Driver Model (WDM), VxD device drivers can be used under Windows 98 and Windows Me. VxDs are not usable in Windows NT or its descendants. Starting with Windows 2000, Windows NT-based operating systems also use the Windows Driver Model, while Windows NT 4 and earlier versions must use drivers written specifically for them. Using VxD drivers instead of WDM drivers in Windows 9x resulted in advanced ACPI states like hibernation being unavailable.

VxDs should not be confused with the similarly named NTVDM-specific 'VDDs' (Virtual Device Drivers), which provide a method of emulating direct I/O under a Windows NT "DOS Box". NTVDM VDDs run as regular, 32-bit, user-mode DLLs, and must rely on the Win32 API (or another WDM driver) to emulate the desired I/O on behalf of the 16-bit program.

^Paul, Matthias (1997-07-30). NWDOS-TIPs — Tips & Tricks rund um Novell DOS 7, mit Blick auf undokumentierte Details, Bugs und Workarounds. MPDOSTIP (e-book) (in German) (edition 3, release 157 ed.). Retrieved 2014-09-06. NWDOSTIP.TXT is a comprehensive work on Novell DOS 7 and OpenDOS 7.01, including the description of many undocumented features and internals. It is part of the author's yet larger MPDOSTIP.ZIP collection maintained up to 2001 and distributed on many sites at the time. The provided link points to a HTML-converted older version of the NWDOSTIP.TXT file.